SHĀM, IS THE VICTORY OF THE “REVOLUTION” AT STAKE?

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From one massacre to another, we resume with heavy hearts the chronicles of Swordless Jihād from the Shām.

Our hope had been to write a story filled with light and without shadows, one that captured the positive changes occurred in recent months.

The spirit of the Revolution seemed in fact to have overcome the initial confusion, translating into a concrete commitment to the common good both by the governing institutions and the civil society.

After the massacre against the Alawites, even from the coastal area there were signs of a return to “normalcy”, although the socio-economic situation remains highly critical throughout the whole country.

However, the terrorist attack in Damascus, which caused 25 deaths and over 60 injuries among Christians gathered in a church, has once again brought the very serious issue of the internal security into the spotlight.

Let’s leave aside for the moment the complex regional and international entanglements, where unfortunately Syria continues to suffer from the interference of too many “external” actors.

On the domestic level, the situation has proven to be very different from the idyllic picture portrayed by a certain propaganda on social media.

As a matter of fact, there has recently been an outflow of armed militants from Hayat Tahrīr al-Shām (HTS) and its affiliates to a new terrorist faction, the self-styled “Sarāyā Ansār al-Sunnah”, which claimed responsibility for the massacre of Christians in the capital…

“Sarāyā Ansār al-Sunnah” is composed almost entirely of “native” Syrians and not of gangs of foreign radicals who “emigrated” to the Shām from around the world. In the jargon of the “misguided of jihād”, they have been passing themselves off as the contemporary “muhājirūn”, desecrating the memory and the example of the Muslims who migrated from Mecca to Medina together with Prophet Muhammad saw.

Despite years of very tough battles and colossal tests of patience for the common cause, what could have pushed them to defect?

The reason is very simple and human. After rising to power, President Ahmad al-Sharāʿ seems to have granted preferential treatment to the alleged “muhājirūn”, both in terms of economic benefits and of power positions in the new administration, marginalizing the “native” Syrian fighters, probably to prevent the rise of potential rivals for the leadership from their ranks.

The lack of “integration” into the structures of the new regime has thus pushed the disillusioned Syrian militants to openly challenge al-Sharāʿ and HTS, by merging into “Sarāyā Ansār al-Sunnah”.

Although there are no official links with the “anti-Islamic state of terror”, “Sarāyā Ansār al-Sunnah” presents itself as a clone of Dāʿish both for its evil ideology and for the conduct of suicide attacks, in line with the background of its members: “misguided of jihād” who, in their life in this dunyā, have only known the path of “terror”, far from the sirāt al-Mustakīn of Allāh swt.

The authorities reacted by the playbook and attributed responsibility for the massacre to Dāʿish, even though the dynamics of the attack are far deeper. On top of that, they ignored the complicity of members within the security apparatus of the government, dominated by men affiliated with HTS.

According to verified audio recordings circulating on several Telegram channels, the assailant could have been stopped. Instead, he was allowed to act freely because his goal was precisely to kill Christians. This confirms the hatred and malicious intentions still widespread among the members of the new regime.

There is nothing Islamic in all this of course, although the display of long beards and of flags with the shahāda goes on as if nothing had happened.

May the arrests that followed at least serve to prevent further attacks, In shāʾ Allāh, as “Sarāyā Ansār al-Sunnah” has already threatened more bloodshed in multiple locations, as outlined in their own claim of responsibility for the Damascus church massacre.

Against this backdrop, the issue of the “misguided of jihād” in the Shām remains highly topical and the only one who can address it is President al-Sharāʿ, who has so far made quite questionable choices on this defining matter.

Therefore, we renew our appeal: President al-Sharāʿ, rid the Shām of all the “misguided of jihād”! Allāh swt has granted victory, and He can easily withdraw it at any time.